At first I thought this was a Thai movie but upon further reading, it turns out to be an Indonesian movie. This is the first Indonesian movie that I'm actually excited about seeing, considering the local movie scene is mostly crap this is a very nice change for once.

Definitely interested in checking it out. I remember when Ong Bak was first released and my excitement in seeing it for the first time, and this looks like it takes the action component and increases it exponentially.

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Definitely interested in checking it out. I remember when Ong Bak was first released and my excitement in seeing it for the first time, and this looks like it takes the action component and increases it exponentially.

The first time I saw Tony Jaa fight in that initial club scene in Ong Bak I was blown away. I was used to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon wire fu style fighting (which I still enjoy, don't get me wrong) and this was just so damn brutal that I actually felt like this was a real fight.

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A buddy and I are going to try to catch it at a theater in D.C. (E Street Cinemas, which gets a lot of indy releases) either this Saturday or the next one, depending on the weather. I'll report on it here. Here's some additional info (almost committed another "oops, didn't know there was already a thread on this" boo boo).

What's it about?

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Synopsis:As a rookie member of an elite special-forces team, Rama (Iko Uwais) is instructed to hang back during a covert mission involving the extraction of a brutal crime lord from a rundown fifteen-story apartment block. But when a spotter blows their cover, boss Tama (Ray Sahetaphy) offers lifelong sanctuary to every every killer, gangster, and thief in the building in exchange fortheir heads. Now Rama must stand in for the team's fallen leader (Joe Taslim) and use every iota of his fighting strength ===========Poster tag line:1 Ruthless Crime Lord, 20 Elite Cops, 30 Floors of Hell-----------A SWAT team becomes trapped in a tenement run by a ruthless mobster and his army of killers and thugs.

*Yeah, I dunno why the synopsis says "15 stories," while the poster clearly shows a 30-story building and talks about "30 floors of hell."

============NOTE: Due to some U.S. copyright concerns regarding a previous movie called "The Raid," they added Redemption to the title. They apparently hope to continue the movies and make it a trilogy. Not sure if each movie will have "Raid" in the title.

My concern about a U.S. remake is they'd probably have to remove the martial arts angle. It makes sense in Indonesia, but afik, most U.S. cops, even elite ones, aren't necessarily trained in martial arts.

In a March 2 blog post, the director Gareth explained the "Redemption" addition to the title:

Quote from: The Raid's director

And then a few minutes later, I get about one or two hundred emails and tweets asking me with horror about the title change on The Raid. So now seems a good a time as any to address the situation and give a little more info on why we changed it.

Truthfully, none of us, the guys at SPC [Sony Classics, I think] included, wanted to change the title from the original. But once we knew we were going to expand the film into a sequel - possibly a trilogy it opened our eyes up to maybe the need for an all encompassing title that could work for all three films.

At first it was just something we toyed around with as an idea to start using with part 2, but then it became an essential thing to do from the get go. The reason why: we found out "The Raid" itself was not available for us to use as a title in the US.

We couldn't get clearance on it and believe me we all tried but with that task becoming impossible and a release date looming - we chose to go with our idea to add a word that reflected one of the elements from the first film. Redemption was the one that fit, and it beat losing The Raid completely after all the work we'd done to establish awareness of the film.

As a film fan that only very recently found myself as part of the industry I do understand the backlash but as someone closely involved in the decision making progress alongside SPC, it was disheartening to see them being bashed for it.

So that's why I chose to give a little more insight into it.

This wasn't an "evil studio" thing, the decision had nothing at all to do with the proposed remake. This was a situation we were all forced into. You guys may not love the new addition to the title, and I'm not about to go and say Redemption is perfect, cos it's not - we all much prefer the simplicity of The Raid.

But the film, it is still the same film we screened at festivals and all I hope is that you all read whatever part of that 5 second titlecard you want to when it pops up on screen, forget the rest and enjoy seeing my good friends beat the shit out of each other for 100mins.

But after the initial, de rigueur barrage of back-and-forth gunplay that opens the confrontation between the cops and the thugs, you end up with a bunch of adrenaline-infused, bone-crunching hand-to-hand combat. Based on the hyper-kinetic style of Indonesian martial arts known as silat, it was introduced to the Western moviegoing world in the 2009 cult film "Merantau."

It's not for everybody. But it is undeniably cinematic and even kind of thrilling - assuming you can stomach the wall of nauseating sound effects generated by repeated blows of feet and fists on flesh.

Forget the stuntmen. The hardest-working guy on this film had to be the foley artist, the technician responsible for figuring out what it sounds like to have both knees and elbows snapped, in rapid succession. I'm guessing he spent the day with his tape recorder at a chicken processing plant....You don't go to "The Raid" for the side dishes, but for the steak. For fans of martial-arts action, it's a sizzling and stylishly served-up order of butt-kicking.

Alas, they're forecasting heavy rain, possibly thunderstorms in DC tomorrow (like 90% chance, 1"+ rain etc.). I'd just as soon enjoy the city on a nice day rather than splash around, so I'm probably going to try for next Saturday instead.

This film is about violence. All violence. Wall-to-wall violence. Against many of those walls, heads are pounded again and again into a pulpy mass. If I estimated the film has 10 minutes of dialogue, that would be generous. ..."The Raid: Redemption" is essentially a visualized video game that spares the audience the inconvenience of playing it. There are two teams, the police SWAT team and the gangsters. The gangsters have their headquarters on the top floor of a 15-story building, where they can spy on every room and corridor with video surveillance. The SWAT team enters on the ground floor. Its assignment: Fight its way to the top, floor by floor....Some of the hand-to-hand battles are shameless in how they mimic video games. A fighter stands in a corridor and demolishes an enemy. As the enemy falls, another springs into position from around corner, ready to be demolished in turn. Then another. It's like they're being ejected by an automatic victim dispenser.

The funny thing is, the more Ebert complains about it, the more I want to see it. And I generally like his stuff (I got his autobiography as an Xmas present), but don't pay much attention to his anti-videogame diatribes.

btw, the director is Welsh (not Indonesian), so that might explain why there's so little dialogue in the film, beyond the fact it's more focused on action than talking.

This film is about violence. All violence. Wall-to-wall violence. Against many of those walls, heads are pounded again and again into a pulpy mass. If I estimated the film has 10 minutes of dialogue, that would be generous.

I'm like you. I tend to cite Ebert as a defense for a film that I want to see if he likes it, then ignore him when he hates one I want to see.

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This film is about violence. All violence. Wall-to-wall violence. Against many of those walls, heads are pounded again and again into a pulpy mass. If I estimated the film has 10 minutes of dialogue, that would be generous.

Odd. I took this blurb to mean he liked it. Either way, I fully expect this to be like Ong-Bak but with way more guns. In, probably on DVD, but still in.

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Welsh-born writer-director Evans didn’t necessarily set out to become the world’s pre-eminent silat action filmmaker, but with his 2009 feature Merantau and now The Raid he’s created a niche for himself while introducing the Western world to the rarely-seen discipline. His fascination with the form began when he was hired to film a documentary about silat, which introduced him to future collaborator, pencak silat practitioner, and Raid star Uwais.

“As a kid I had watched kung fu movies and muy thai movies and karate movies, but I’d never seen silat before,” Evans told Movieline last week at SXSW, where The Raid screened ahead of its March 23 release. “When I finally got to see silat it knocked me on my ass, and I wanted my friends back home to be able to see it. I was hungry to be able to have a movie that I could take back to the U.K. -- Friday night, a couple of beers, ‘Guys, you’ve got to see silat, it looks so fucking cool!’”

The Raid isn’t the first silat action film, but few predecessors found an audience on par with the classic Hong Kong action films or mainstream martial arts hits. “There were films with silat made in the ‘70s and ‘80s in Indonesia but the choreography didn’t hold up in the same way that the choreography in Hong Kong has held up,” Evans explained. “You can’t compare those films to something like Drunken Master because they’re just so different in terms of style. And they added a lot of mysticism and were great as cult movies, but beyond that, not really. So I figured if I wanted to show them silat, I’d better go out and make a film.”

And the director has some interesting thoughts about the lead character, who's to represent the average, moderate Muslims that he's familiar with in Indonesia:

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“I feel like there tends to be two different versions of Islam in the media,” Evans told Movieline. “There’s the version when you get these super preachy movies where it’s all about the religion, and there are other movies where whenever they’re doing a prayer it’s because they’re about to blow someone up.”

“I didn’t like these two polar opposites because I’ve lived in Indonesia for four years and all I’ve seen, all the people I’ve hung out with, and all the people that I’ve met, they’re moderate Muslims and they live a very ordinary, everyday life,” he continued. "With Iko specifically, Islam is just a part of his heart and it’s a part of his everyday life. I didn’t want to make a big point of it in the film, we just wanted to throw it out there. If people latch onto it they do; if they don’t, they don’t. But it’s there, it’s a part of his character, and it’s a part of his everyday life – and he’s the hero of the film.”

Although I suspect between all the shootings, beatings and stabbings in the film, this angle might be lost on average Joe moviegoer.

Hittin' the matinee in a bit. It's playing at my local theater...and there's a bar connected.

...this will not end well.

Update: It did end well.

I really enjoyed The Raid (The Raid Redemption, that is). It's a balls out action film with a ton of great fight sequences. The story is thin but surprisingly enjoyable. I wasn't expecting even a shred of a story so it was a welcome addition to the film.

While the actors are mostly forgettable, there was one who stole every scene he was in. The villain they called Mad Dog. He was fantastic. While he didn't have a lot of lines, he just oozed menace. Plus, he was only about 4 foot nothing and STILL came across as a tough SOB. He also looked a HELL of a lot like Harold Perrineau from Lost and Oz.

I'd give it a solid B. It's fun and it doesn't overstay its welcome.

« Last Edit: March 26, 2012, 03:47:39 PM by hepcat »

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This will be dismissed by some readers as a manifestation of my lack of enthusiasm for video games. Perhaps so. I think it springs more from my affection for characters, plot, human nature and other elements possible in movies. "The Raid" is monotonously single-tracked in showing one gruesome scene of hand-to-hand combat after another. Heads are destroyed like targets in a carnival sideshow booth. Bones are crunched as if Army Rangers are building a campfire. The corpses piling up in great numbers are disposed of, apparently, by invisible clean-up crews. Why are there no shots of the living stepping with difficulty over the bleeding mounds of the dead?

A plot? "The Raid" supplies only Plot Markers, which are handy signposts indicating "There would be a subplot here if we had the time to stop for one." One Marker says, "Brother." Another says, "Betrayal." The movie's first one says, "Pregnant Wife."...I can't take this much longer. I can't function like a butcher's scale. Is it enough to spend two hours determining if a film "achieves its generic purpose?" Shouldn't it do more than that? Perhaps provide some humor, humanity, romance, suspense, beauty, strategy, poetry. Not all of those qualities, but at least several of them. "The Raid" didn't even supply a single good-looking publicity still.

I've seen some incredibly brutal South Korean films recently, like "The Chaser," that contain enough violence to stun any fan of "The Raid" but also have the advantage of being very good films, with intriguing characters, puzzling plots, and ingenious situations. I watched spellbound. "The Raid: Redemption" is dead in the water. The butcher slams the raw slab on his scale and asks, "How many are you feeding?"

Poor Rog. You're just motivating us to want to go see it. Basically, he's just saying he usually tries to rate a film based on what it's trying to do and the audience it's appealing to, but now he's sort of questioning the idea of being that "generic" in reviews.

I should catch it Saturday, barring any last minute changes in plan.

I certainly did like Drive (I actually bought it on DVD), which Ebert tends to cite as an extremely violent movie that he did think highly of because of its style, characters, plot, engenuity etc. But hey, I can also get into "grindhouse" type movies if done right.

I admit it, I like martial arts films and films in which violence is depicted almost as if it were a choreographed dance. The Raid gave me that. This is the Bolshoi Ballet of Spine Breaking Violence, in my opinion. I can understand that critics might not like it. I can understand if it's looked down upon by most, and I can't disagree with them. This movie appealed to me on a visceral level that I can't justify intellectually...and that's fine with me sometimes.

...But I'm sure as hell watching The Chaser soon. I noticed just now it's available on Netflix streaming.

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It just opened locally so I'm going tonight with a group from work despite Ebert's nay saying.

You're supposed to say it's because of Ebert's nay saying.

Not that there's much chance of a Saturday afternoon showing selling out but I ordered tickets in advance, and even made reservation at the restaurant. Not sure I'll be brave enough to try the grasshopper tacos, the braised beef tongue or the baby pig confit (all of which might make my pal and me vomit when we look at the plates), but it'll be fun to eat somewhere more adventuresome than Chipotle.

Caught it Saturday afternoon with an old former co-worker pal at the E Street Cinemas in DC.

It's pretty wild and we found it a blast. Random thoughts:-Most of the martial arts scenes also involve machetes, knives, razors, fluorescent light tubes (!) etc., and so there is a lot of gouging, cutting, stabbing. It gets so (wonderfully?) out of hand at times, and the Kill Scenes are often so over the top, that the audience kept gasping or even laughing, sort of in shock. It's not a subtle movie. -The ostensible protagonist (one of the brothers) imho does get across some charm and appeal, both in his actual acting and in his seeming channeling of Bruce Lee, Jet Li and maybe the young Jackie Chan. Although I don't remember those guys garroting, gouging and slamming bad guys onto jagged surfaces. -Don't think the "30 elite cops" billing is accurate though. It's more like a reasonably elite sergeant, a "green" rookie who's secretly Superman and a bunch of yahoos.

-Despite the billing as a "martial arts film," there's no martial arts to speak of until maybe the 45-50 minute mark of the movie (which is 140 minutes 1 HOUR 40 MINS. long). After that, it's non-stop. -Plenty of gun violence those first 45-50 minutes. If you ever caught Bonnie & Clyde, The Wild Bunch or Scarface's climactic gun battles, well, multiply that a few times, and that's what much of the first half of The Raid is. Be also prepared to watch a lot of people getting shot in the head or the face in graphic close range. Not much is left to the imagination.

-I agree with some reviews the set design budget appears to have been zero (actually reminds me of the first Saw movie). Now I get that it's some drug warlord's slum buildings, so probably it should look like crap, right? However, I think if Hollywood wants to re-do the movie, a simple way to freshen it up would be to make the 30-story building opulent and palacial (kind of like in Tony's place late in Scarface), reflecting what crazy wealthy drug warlords might do with a building.-There is a LOT of shaky cam. I don't think I'd call it Blair Witch type shaky cam, there are just a lot of action sequences where the camera seems out of control. I got used to it, but if that sort of thing bothers you, be forewarned.

E Street's actually only in the first floor, and then you take a long escalator ride/staircase into the bowels of the building where the theaters are. They serve beer, wine and liquor at the concessions though I think you're not allowed to take them into the theaters. The concessions had some neat offerings I need to try another time, and the prices are slightly less obscene than at the major chains.

The seating capacity for The Raid's theater was incredibly tiny, maybe the smallest I've been at in my life, side from one of the military base theaters in Korea. The screen itself felt pretty generous in relation to the seating capacity though and it was still sort of stadium style. A lot of indy and foreign films debut there for a week and then go into wider release elsewhere.

You can also glimpse my brunch at Oyamel, a hoidy-toidy (but not too expensive) "Mexicana small plates" restaurant neary the Archives-Navy Memorial Metro station:

Pork belly, which I tend to read as "slab of bacon that hasn't been sliced," was to die for. If you're wondering why I seem to have a dog turd on my plate, that is, in fact the refried black beans (I assume they run the beans through a blender). I much prefer that look to the "vomited up brown refried beans" you get at many cheap Mexican restaurants. I still might've preferred a different shape.

Watched it this past Saturday night. In one word: Badass. Ebert is dead wrong in his dismissal of this flick. It's a solid genre action film. Entertaining to the hilt. Yes, it's violent--there were scenes in it that made people gasp--but it's one fun flick. It's great to see a non-pretentious action flick this well made. And by an Indonesian filmmaker with not that many resources, no less. The Hollywood remake will probably have over-the-top CGI and the latest star of the moment. I say do your best to watch this original, good action effort.

Blackjack's detailed assertions above are right on. I had no idea it's 140mins long. It moved fast and it didn't feel that long. This was my favorite scene in the film:

Spoiler for Hiden:

When the thug jams the machete thru the wall and pins the hero on the other side of it, cutting slightly thru his cheek. Very tense. Very Coehn Brothers/'Blood Simple'. Loved it.

Oh, do note the director is actually Welsh-born (Gareth Evans). I dunno if he's an Indonesian citizen per se, though it sounds from interviews he loves living there.

My favorite scene is actually during the non-martial arts stuff early on:

Spoiler for Hiden:

When the young, supposedly "green" protagonist (damned if I know the character's names ) jams the propane tank in the fridge, tosses a grenade in and gets help reversing the fridge and jamming it into the wall hole (or was that a doorway?) as a sort of desperation reverse-bomb. Good times. Unlike Indy 4, that's how you use a fridge in an action movie!

Mad Dog was just excellent. Again, the film is so well-made that they made this 4ft tall guy into a total menace. Another favorite scene in the film for me:

Spoiler for Hiden:

When Mad Dog, armed with a gun, points the leader of the SWAT squad into a vacant apartment. The leader of the squad is taller and more fit than Mad Dog. You can feel the tension in the air. Mad Dog tells him it feels better just to do it with his bare hands, and he proceeds fight, kick this man's ass then kill him. The whole way this scene is set-up is what so many Hollywood action flicks lack: Tension, build-up. The movie nailed it.